Achieving insight across a wide variety of problems – not just word problems but interpersonal conflicts, music composition (creative problems), for example, typically follows a pattern. We focus all our attention on the aspects of the problem as it is presented, or as we understand it, combing through the different possible solutions and scenarios with […]

Last month, our much beloved no-kill animal shelter had an outbreak of canine distemper and needed communications help. They are not a client, but the executive director contacted me, and, feeling like Wonder Woman, I immediately cleared my calendar and accepted the mission. It’s not often I get to help save the puppies! The situation had many […]

It’s Summer, and in that vein, I have some lighter reading for you today. If you’re like me, you try to slow down a notch – take off early on Fridays (or take them off altogether), and indulge in that Summer reading list, a little lighter fare than you might normally treat yourself too. Today, I […]

Ann Lamott calls it the “shitty first draft.” Which is good to know because that means even the best of us start with shitty first drafts. Don’t lose faith in your shitty first draft, for today, I’m going to help you turn it into a good story. This idea all started when I created a screencast for my client, […]

The other night I watched this episode of The Profit where Marcus Lemonis works with the mom and pop owners of Shuler’s BBQ to scale the business. It is a classic “entrepreneur gets sucked into business” and a scenario many of us grapple with every day. In one scene, Marcus sits down with the potential general manager – a guy […]

Chinese whispers (or telephone in the United States) is a game played around the world, in which one person whispers a message to another, which is passed through a line of people until the last player announces the message to the entire group. – Source Often hilarity ensues at how distorted the message has become since it’s […]

Not long after I hung up from my podcast call with Carol Lynn and Ralph Rivera, I of course, thought of more things I wanted to talk about. As if an hour wasn’t enough! If you want to hear the whole conversation, on content and sharing knowledge, it’s right here: Web Search Social Podcast. While you’re […]

I was somewhat blindsided by some bad tax news from my accountant a couple weeks ago. It was made that much worse because I felt like the situation could have been avoided with some attention and better advice from the firm over the previous 15 months. I shared my concern in a carefully and respectfully written email […]

I’m not terribly big on memes and inspirational quotes but this quote, shared by my friend Amy O’Hara on Facebook, made me feel some forgiveness towards myself – perhaps all the recent chaos in my life isn’t as bad as I think it is. Lately, I’ve barely been able to show up prepared. You know that feeling […]

Can oversharing your expertise cost you business? How much is too much and at what point do we start giving away so much knowledge that our prospects don’t even need to buy from us? Or even worse, our competitors steal our secrets? I don’t fault anyone for asking the question. But it’s the wrong way […]